Sprout
by chuckolacola
Summary: When a new family moves next door to the Namikazes, five year old Naruto drafts their daughter into his small gang of friends. Together they tackle the great problem of life. A feelgood AU with occasional tearjerks. No major pairings as of yet.


**6/22/13:** First chapter rewritten entirely. Basic plot skeleton remains, content has changed. My health has returned, along with my inspiration!

**Other notes:** For the time being the only pairings in the story are one sided crushes, as the characters are children. Otherwise the closest anything comes are close friendships. It can be noted that I won't be averse to exploring multiple different pairings later on.

**Summary:** A feel-good AU in which the Naruto cast grows up in a happy and loving enviroment. They are not without their personal tragedies and woes, of course, but happiness is within reach.  
**Chapter Summary:** A new family moves in next door to the Namikaze family. Young Naruto makes it his mission to befriend their daughter, and quickly succeeds after a council of war with his friends.

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**Chapter One: The Great Mission**

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"Somebody moved in next door to us." Naruto said over their afternoon pretzels and juice on friday.

His 'gang' looked at him curiously. Composed of a scrappy boy with short cropped brown hair, an impish blonde girl, and a bored looking boy in a turtleneck, they composed a motley assortment of would-be musketeers and adventurers. Ino, the girl, seemed the most interested, and took a sip from her grape juice before winding up her question.

"Who?" she aked.

Naruto, small even for five, fidgeted in his seat at the head of the table and scratched at the birthmarks on his cheeks. "Dunno." he finally answered, "Mama said not to bother them yet."

Kiba, the rougher looking boy, scoffed through a mouthful of pretzel. Juugo the daycare monitor glared at him from across the room, all-seeing, and he wiped his mouth sheepishly while muttering an apology. The other boy, and Naruto's best friend, finally lifted his head from its resting place on his hand to speak. He didn't look any more interested than before, but what he said showed he had been listening.

"Well, you obviously didnt listen to her. When do you ever?"

Naruto flushed in humiliation. He was right, of course- he _had_ gone to peek and spy and see what the new neighbors looked like- but that didn't make the accusation any less embarrassing. "Shaddap, Sasuke." he muttered.

"Ignore Uchiha," Ino said plainly, "What'd ya find out?"

Naruto popped a pretzel in his mouth. Ino and Sasuke had been fighting ever since the temperamental boy had sent a soccer ball flying into the even more temperamental girl's head by accident over a month ago. As self proclaimed 'Gang Leader' Naruto had yet to bring them to a ceasefire. But this wasn't the time for that anyway! More important things had to be addressed.

"An old guy with spiky hair. Even more than my pop's. And a nice looking lady," Naruto covered his full mouth while he spoke to be polite, "and a little kid, I think our age. Couldn't see their face, so I dunno if it's a boy or girl. They had pink hair."

"So isn't it a girl, then? Cos it's pink." Kiba said. His mouth was still full.

"Doesn't have to be, dummy." Naruto shot back, "My aunt has blue hair, but she's not a _boy_."

Kiba quieted down, looking sullen.

"Then it's a mission." Sasuke said calmly. He was breaking up pretzels methodically and crunching them in his mouth piece by piece. He always did this with his food. He had a lot of peculiar habits.

"Good idea." Ino said, swept up enough to ignore that Sasuke had been the one to come up with it. "You can go and talk to the kid and find out their name! Come back and tell us what they're like next time."

Kiba nodded vigorously around another mouthful of pretzels and took a gulp of apple juice. When it seemed he wasn't enthusiastic enough, he slammed his paper cup on the table, sloshing the juice around, and flashed a double thumbs up at his would-be leader. Naruto, effectively caught up in the plan for their little mission, returned with a thumbs up of his own. There weren't any other kids in his neighborhood anyway, really- he was always alone on the weekends unless his cousin came to visit from Ame. It would be nice to make a new friend.

"Leave it to me!"

()oO00Oo()

Naruto began his mission immediately after bidding his friends farewell that day. As soon as his mother unstrapped him from his car seat, he scrambled into the back yard to the tire swing hanging from the oak tree that had been there ever since his parents moved in...a long time ago. Before he was born, anyway, and that didn't matter because he could see people moving around through one of the windows. They were moving chairs and boxes.

He sat in his tire swing for nearly an hour, watching the man and lady moving furniture and unpacking boxes before he gave up on his mission for the day. It was obvious that their kid wasn't around at the time, or was too short to be seen through the window. And, as it was, only a few minutes after he moved to play in the sandbox, Naruto's mother called him in to welcome his father home.

After that, Naruto was too caught up badgering his parents with questions about their own day to do anymore outright spying. But he did find out that the child next door was a girl by sheer luck, over dinner. The conversation turned to the family next door- the Haruno family- when Namikaze Kushina brought up her encounter with them to her husband Minato. Wisely, Naruto kept stuffing his face with udon and simply listened.

"I met the Harunos today." Kushina remarked brightly, "Nice family. Kizushi and Mebuki, I think their names are."

Minato nodded and swallowed his mouthful of udon politely before answering. "I think they had a daughter?"

Naruto's ears perked, but he kept on slurping.

"Yes, I think she was reading in her room when we spoke. Seems like she's a bit shy."

With that, both parents glanced meaningfully at their son. He choked a little, and maintained his nonchalant demeanor as best he could.

When Saturday noon dawned, Naruto scarfed down his cereal ravenously before scampering into the back yard again, determination renewed. His parents' short conversation the night before had given him some of the information he wanted, but he had yet to see and talk to the little girl next door himself. He sat in his tire swing again and spun around. There was no one in the window, and no one in the yard, and Naruto wasn't yet quite gutsy enough to go next door and ask if anyone could come out and play. Not without knowing the name of who he was asking for, at least.

Finally, after a perceived eternity, the back door opened and a pink haired little girl in sandals and a sundress shuffled cautiously into the yard. Naruto was so determined to stop the spinning of his tire swing that he fell out of it entirely with a breathless _oomph. _By the time he had come to his senses and climbed to his feet, neglecting to brush the dirt off of his shirt and bare knees, the girl was staring at him green eyes wide with dismay.

Lost on what to do, Naruto smiled and waved.

The girl across the fence edged back a little, but waved back nonetheless. Encouraged by this, Naruto bolted forward until he collided with the picket fence, grinning widely.

"Hiya!" he shouted. The little girl jumped.

"Hiya," he repeated more quietly, "My name's Naruto." His parents _were_ always telling him not to yell. He must have startled her. Maybe that was why he wasn't supposed to shout.

The girl finally edged forward a little. Her bangs were covering most of her forehead and got into her eyes when she moved. Naruto wondered if they were itchy.

"You're pretty." he said, instead of asking. And he did think so. Naruto had never met a person he thought was ugly, not yet.

The girl seemed startled and flushed, but before she could respond, Naruto asked, "What's your name?"

She paused in her silent mouthing. "I- um- S-sakura."

"Because of your hair?" he asked, genuinely curious.

Sakura shook her head.

"Okay," Naruto accepted, "Do you want to play on my tire swing? You don't have to. I have a sandbox too. Your yard is boring. There's nothing in it."

"I'll...I"ll get my dress dirty." Sakura said lamely.

"So change into overalls. I bet you have some. I do too." Naruto chirped. He was grinning ear to ear. Sakura was starting to smile a little too.

"Okay. I have to ask my mommy first, though." Sakura told him.

"I'll wait." Naruto said honestly. He watched her go. His mission was all but complete now, but he had forgotten about it. Ino, Kiba and Sasuke would have to drag the information out of him on Monday.

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**Chapter End**

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Thanks for any readthroughs! I did a quick proofread of this, but if I missed anything major please let me know and I will fix it. I'm happy to receive critique, too.


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